Man City change in transfer stance on selling to rivals explained

Manchester City have followed some very obvious principles on their way to becoming the dominant force in English football: avoid strengthening a rival whenever possible, and weaken a rival whenever the opportunity presents itself. The last time the club sold a player to a rival was Emmanuel Adebayor to Tottenham back in 2012, while in the meantime they have pinched Gael Clichy, Bacary Sagna and Samir Nasri from Arsenal, Frank Lampard from Chelsea, Raheem Sterling from Liverpool and Kyle Walker from Spurs.

Minimising the damage when you sell a player is smart business, and helps explain why City were relaxed about selling Leroy Sane to Bayern Munich rather than an English team and incredibly relieved when Dortmund came in for wantaway prospect Jadon Sancho in 2017; the Blues knew they had to sell but were finding it hard to stomach accepting a bid from the interested English sides because of the greater potential for it to show them up on a more regular basis.

Why then, is Txiki Begiristain happy to countenance the sale of Gabriel Jesus to Arsenal this summer and Sterling to Chelsea? What has changed to mean City are prepared to give their rivals a helping hand (in exchange for the right price)?

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Part of that can be explained by the economic climate. The revenues received and generated by English clubs were already dwarfing those on the continent before the pandemic - to the extent that in 2018 a report found that 17 of the top 20 earners across Europe from broadcasting revenues were English clubs.

With everyone feeling the pinch of the global health crisis over the last two years, there are even fewer clubs who are able to afford the